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| Barns in Swaledale |
March is never my favourite month. It is too drab, too
boring I guess. It is not winter, although it can get cold, and it is
not spring, as nothing is growing.
The months around it are more interesting.
February is winter, with cold and snowy weather, whilst April finally
sees the world waking up after winter, with lambs being born, flowers
popping out, and fields greening.
Why bother with March at all I say!!
I guess this attitude reflects in my photography in March, which usually
seems to be a bit benign. This year has been no different.
There is an old saying around here, you probably have heard of it too… “March,
in like a lion, out like a lamb, in like a lamb, out like a lion”. This
March came in like a lion, with a very cold snap, which again allowed me to get
some nice snowy scenes, and finished on a nice, warm note, sun out and the birds
singing.
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| Chicken Fodder |
Early in the month I was up to see a friend in Selkirk, up in bonny
Scotland, who had bought a collie pup off me. I was delivering the pup.
Its about 100 miles
to Selkirk, and for the first couple of miles the pup howled and howled…luckily
it calmed down after that and was quiet for the rest of the trip, but I thought
I was in for a long painful journey up! Giles, my mate in Selkirk, runs an
organic farm, and runs around 2000 free range hens as well. I landed at feeding
time,
and got some cracking photos of his hens. The light was just right. One of
the resulting pictures was published in the Scottish Farmer magazine.
Sales attended this month saw prices up to 5500guineas for a Belgian Blue bull
at the Chelford spring sale, and a bid of £2500 for a Swaledale in-lamb
ewe at Kirkby Stephen, where buyers seemed to be going mad. Even I ended up buying
a ewe for £1200. (Don’t worry, I keep a few Swaledale sheep alongside
taking pictures!!). Other sales and events visited this month included Clitheroe,
Wigton and Penrith Auction marts and an Open Day at a machinery dealers at Carlisle
called Rikerby’s, for a magazine called Farming in the North. There was
also a pedigree sale at Carlisle for Charolais and Blonde d’Aquataine
cattle.
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| Planting Trees |
March always seems to be a month where I seem to do more farm work,
back at home helping my dad on the farm. It’s my form of charity work, like help those
poor ones! We start lambing in April at home, and there always seems to be a
bit of preparation beforehand, making sure everything is up to scratch, and getting
sheep home from their winter grazing.
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| Polo |
I have also started to train a young sheepdog
called Nell. I sold her as a puppy, but she came back at about a year old
when her owner thought she wasn’t going to amount to much. She is starting
to shape up nicely after a bit of patience with her.
The highlight of the month was the gripping excitement of a photo competition
in Practical Photography, where one of my photos was actually placed. 6th
I think it was. I was well pleased. I normally get a slip saying, “sorry, your
entry was interesting, but not THAT interesting (Or words to that effect!) So
used to getting this reply I actually rang the magazine up to see why my pictures
had not returned, with the aforementioned note…I thought they must
have got lost in the post! so always keep trying is the motto.
One gripe this month is about all this new fangled technology. I know I
am a sucker
for it, and it does make life 100% more efficient all this digital wizardry,
but why no back up or repairs service? I have an Epson A3 printer, which
is around 2 1/2 years old at a guess, and it has had a lot of work to do,
so I
excused
it
when it decided to have a break, for what I was told would be a week, whilst
the appropriate parts were brought in. No problems. Nearly 5 weeks later…have
I got my printer back….you guessed right….nope!! Never mind….
One event overshadowed everything else this month, and that was the sudden
death of one of my best mates wife, at the age of 29, leaving him with
2 young children
to support. This put life into context, and made me aware of the full value
of friendship. If nothing else after reading all my waffle, always, always
make
time for your friends and family. They are the most important things in
life.
On that note, cheerio, and next month should bring some nice photos of
lambs.
Wayne Hutchinson - www.farm-images.co.uk
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